Would Our Community Call Us Christians?

Okay, so with Acts 11, those verses open in front of you.

Thanks so much, Colin and Ellen, for reading them.

Here's a thing that until last week I didn't know was a thing.

People leaving Google reviews of this church online.

Intrigued?

Want to see three of them?

You want to see three of them, don't you?

Right, someone going by the name E.W. wrote,

Nice interior architecture in a nice location.

Okay, these people might be here today, I don't know if you see.

Dr. Whale Abdu said,

We're a great venue for birthday parties.

Give an amen to that one.

Great venue for birthday parties.

Local tour guide Chris Middleton said,

We're a fantastic community hub.

So you bring that together on Google,

we're getting 4.8 out of 5 stars currently.

Yeah?

Now I'm going to give our building team a few seconds to enjoy that.

And then I'm going to burst our bubble

and say,

That's not really what we're interested in.

To nick a line from the rhyme,

you might remember from when you were little,

We're not interested in the church.

Not really all that interested in the steeple.

But what we're really interested in

is what people would see when they look inside

and see all the people.

Here's a question we're going to be challenged with today.

Would our community call us Christians?

Sound a strange question?

Would our community call us Christians?

Come with me to Acts chapter 11.

Acts 11 · chapter mention

I'll show you what I mean by that.

If there was a lonely planet guide to the Roman Empire

in the first century,

three most biggest influential and biggest cities you would have.

Right?

Number one, Rome.

Number two, Alexandria.

Number three,

this place called Antioch.

You'll find it in the map.

It's kind of the top north one.

What you see about Antioch

is you're looking at something about half a million people.

You see in the map,

it's geographically a cracking location to be, isn't it?

You can kind of go around the corner.

You can go down.

You can go into Asia.

It's a good big city.

People even from China there.

All sorts of different people.

Jews, Greeks, Romans, Persians, Indians.

People from far away as China.

And the locals,

and I think they're called Antiochians.

I think that is the thing.

Okay?

Apparently, they are famous for loving a joke.

Right?

Loving a bit of banter.

They love nothing more.

And this is what historians around the time will say.

Nothing more than to dish out a witty nickname.

That's what you do when you're from Antioch.

And here's why that's significant.

Because when the local people in Antioch looked at these first disciples of Jesus,

watching these people like dandelions in the sun,

just cropping up everywhere, out of nowhere.

We just cannot predict where the next one is going to come from.

Here is what they called these early disciples.

Verse 26.

The disciples were called Christians first at Antioch.

Now, if you're here today and you're wondering,

what is a Christian?

You've come here with all sorts of ideas in your mind.

Ideas, I imagine, from the media.

Ideas, I'd imagine, from your upbringing.

Perhaps what you've seen in the place that you live.

Perhaps from television.

The Vicar of Dibley.

What was that show on BBC a few years ago called Rev?

If all these kind of things are in your mind.

You've picked a great Sunday to be with us.

Because this is the origin of the name.

Do you know what it means?

Christian means literally many Jesus.

So when the locals saw Jesus at work in the lives of these people,

when they heard Jesus being proclaimed and praised from their lips,

they laughed and they teased and they said,

ha-ha, you guys are just little Jesuses.

You know the kind of thing?

Here comes the God Squad.

Look out.

Here come the Jesus freaks.

Way-oh.

Here are the Bible bashers.

Here are the Holy Joes.

Okay?

It's what people see in Antioch when they look at these early disciples.

You guys are just little Jesuses.

Now that's a nickname worth having, isn't it?

So the name Christian in its original context is a nickname.

And Luke lets us see in this passage, I think,

what it was about the lives of these disciples in Antioch

that caused the locals to say that.

There's four of them.

We're going to look at them in just a second.

But before we get there, see what's going on in the book of Acts.

Here's the question.

How did the gospel, how did the news of Jesus even get to a place like Antioch on the map?

Well, verse 19 in the text, if we get into it,

it connects us back to the persecution that happened in Jerusalem,

if you remember in chapter 8.

The early followers of Jesus, they were chased out of Jerusalem.

And they ran to Judea and Samaria.

Now, of course, they are being pushed out of their city.

But what's going on, remember, Alistair took us there a number of weeks ago,

is that Jesus' plan for the spread of the gospel is happening.

Man's worst plays into God's plans and his best.

So Jesus said, you're going to be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, ends of the earth.

How is that going to happen?

How are people going to go?

In this case, it is persecution.

It is driving out the people.

It's fulfilling Jesus' plan.

And here in verse 11 of chapter 11, verse 19 of chapter 11,

here's what we learn about those people who went.

They went as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus, and Antioch.

And like bees carrying pollen.

And notice, by the way, that these aren't apostles.

The apostles are the guys who are staying in Jerusalem.

These are just ordinary believers, ordinary disciples of Jesus.

They carry the message about Jesus wherever they go, like bees carrying pollen.

And hey, presto, by God's grace, through the work of his Holy Spirit,

spiritual pollination happens everywhere they go.

The gospel is going long.

That's what Luke's telling us.

The gospel is going long.

And the gospel is going deep.

Because in Antioch, look at what happened at verse 21.

The Lord's hand was at work.

These are the descriptions of a historian who wants people down the line to know the details.

So he's taking his time to tell us this.

The Lord's hand was at work.

And great numbers turned to the Lord.

And Luke tells us that again at verse 24.

To bookend that wee bit.

A great number of people were brought to the Lord.

So Luke wants us to know that what happened in Antioch was no drop in the ocean.

What happened in Antioch was an unmissable act of God.

Great number of people become Christians.

And reports of this filter back from Antioch, filter back all the way down to Jerusalem.

And verse 22, what they do is they send Barnabas from Jerusalem to go back to Antioch,

almost as their ambassador, to go to Antioch and to see if what is happening is the real deal.

And what happens is that Barnabas confirms what the people in Antioch are saying about the disciples,

that yes, they are many Jesuses.

Look at verse 23.

When he sees his disciples going for it, what is he?

He's glad.

Right?

I take it that's always one of the marks of the Holy Spirit in our lives,

when we see what God is doing somewhere else,

and it makes us glad.

It's not all about here, is it?

Makes us glad when we see what God is doing elsewhere.

These guys are Christians, says Barnabas.

They've got it.

It's real.

God is at work.

Last week we thought about the first Gentile Christian.

Do you remember his name was Cornelius?

If you want to listen back, you can on the website.

If not, just read it in your own time.

Cornelius, the first Gentile Christian.

Now do you see what's going on?

We've got the first Gentile church.

The gospel's growing.

It's going long.

It's going deep.

And here are the four reasons the people in Antioch called these people Christians.

And as we look at these, remember the question we're asking ourselves.

Would our community call us Christians?

So here is number one.

What do they see about these guys?

They see, first of all, that these people are worshipping somebody else.

What did Barnabas see?

Verse 23.

He saw what the grace of God had done.

Now just take in that phrase.

It's not about these people that they've turned over a new leaf.

They've decided to be better.

Decided to have a crack at this Christianity thing.

No, no, no, no.

This is about God giving them new hearts as he, and like only he can do,

as he breathes in life to spiritual dead bodies.

He takes souls and he transfers them from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of light.

And that means that if you are a Christian, that is what's going on in your life.

It doesn't matter if you've had an amazing testimony.

It doesn't matter if you've been brought up as a Christian, all of you.

What is going on is a miracle that God has taken you from darkness

and transferred you to light through the work of his son on the cross.

It's what he's done.

It's what's going on here in Antioch.

The grace of God is at work, which is tremendously freeing

because that means you and I did not get into God's good books because of our works.

It means that we've been saved purely by his grace and his compassion and his love

because he is that kind of God.

What's going on in Antioch?

There's new creations everywhere.

You can imagine, right?

Cosmopolitan city that prizes material prosperity and beauty,

thinks nothing of cutting someone down with a bit of wit.

And you're living in a place all under the banner of Caesar is Lord.

That's really who's worshipped here.

Yes, we can do stuff under his, but that's the banner we're operating under.

You can imagine if you're somebody who says, actually, no,

there was a man who came back from the dead and he's Lord of all.

And he controls my tongue, my thoughts and my wallet.

You can imagine that that is your confession in a place like Antioch.

You're going to stand out like a mile, stand out a mile like a sore thumb.

I loved it.

It was down, um, uh,

Wee Cafe in Birdie House with Grace yesterday.

Just opened it.

It's a kind of 20 schemes thing where they're trying to get people back into work.

They've opened this cafe in this community.

And I loved it just on the door.

Nailing their colours to the mass in the community, what they're all about.

Jesus, I'm the bread of life.

There it is.

Bang.

This is who we are.

Loved it.

These people are worshipping someone else.

There's something else that makes them tick.

There's someone else who they're all about.

I guess the question I was asking myself this week is,

Do people in my life know what I'm all about?

Do they know that I worship somebody else?

Think about it.

In your workplace, in your school, in your university,

do people know?

Your family friends, do they know?

That these people are worshipping somebody else.

That's what they're saying in Antioch.

Secondly, these people, they think they're heading somewhere else.

And here's your boy Barnabas.

Right?

You might remember Luke introduced us to him at the end of chapter 4.

His name's not Barnabas.

That's the interesting thing about Barnabas.

His name's not Barnabas.

His name is Joseph.

Barnabas, if you remember, is his nickname.

It means son of encouragement.

So the believers see this guy doing his thing,

and they say the defining feature of your life

is that you're an encourager.

Love that.

You've had a hard day.

Barnabas is the guy you want to call.

Your life's rocking all over the place.

You don't know if you're going to make it tomorrow.

He's the guy that you want to turn up at the door.

Barnabas is an encourager.

And I think that's why they send him to this church in Antioch.

Tough place to be a Christian.

Who are we going to send?

We're going to send the encourager.

Luke gives us a wee description of him again at verse 24.

He's a good man.

He's full of the Holy Spirit and faith.

And boy, is he using those gifts in Antioch.

And we're not just told about him.

We're told what he's saying.

What he's saying,

he was glad

and encouraged them all to remain true to the Lord with all their hearts.

That's what he's saying.

That's his message to the disciples.

You want to boil it down?

It just means keep on going.

Remain true to the Lord.

Keep on persevering.

Right?

I was thinking about it this week.

This is like Dory from Finding Nemo.

Do you remember her phrase?

What's her phrase?

Keep on swimming.

Just keep on swimming.

Just keep on swimming.

So she says,

just keep on swimming.

Keep on going.

And that's Barnabas.

She says,

just keep on going.

Just keep on going.

I know it's tough.

Just keep on going.

Life following Jesus is tough.

Finding life exhausting as a parent,

wondering if you can keep on going.

The ups and downs of your health

making you anxious about the future.

The death of a loved one

left a huge hole in your heart.

The uncertainty about what tomorrow looks like,

let alone plans coming together for next year.

Is it crippling you?

All meaning that you might be here physically today,

but spiritually inside you are struggling.

Barnabas is the kind of person

who draws alongside

and he brings people back.

And I take it this morning.

I think all of us need that.

To draw alongside

and to say,

I know life's tough.

But let's keep on going.

Let's keep on going.

Where does Barnabas bring them back to?

He brings them back to the Lord.

Love this guy.

Can you imagine him doing this thing in the church?

I'm all ears.

I love you.

Tell me what's going on in your life.

I want to listen.

And that sounds brutal.

Oh, isn't life

just so complicated and hard sometimes?

But here's what you and I need.

Just look at Jesus.

Would you look at him?

Would you remember who he is?

Remember what he's done?

Would you remember what he's doing?

The right hand of God.

He's praying for us.

Do you remember what he said was going to happen?

Do you remember how he said

he wouldn't leave us as orphans?

He would come back?

Do you remember how he said that?

Do you remember how the Bible is the story of the God

who is faithful to keeping his promises?

Not one of God's good plans will ever fail.

Do you remember that?

Do you remember how Jesus said

that heaven's ahead of us?

Do you remember how he said

in the words of the old hymn

he will hold us fast.

He will hold us fast.

Where I fear my faithful fail

he will hold us fast.

Barnabas draws alongside

and he just says

let's just keep on going.

Let's just keep on going.

You know about the Sally Lloyd-Jones

thoughts to make your heart sing.

We do it with the kids sometimes.

She's got a wonderful way

of just phrasing it at the end.

There's three travellers just going on

and one at the front

says to the guys at the back

listen, talking of Jesus

he's already gone ahead of us

into the new day.

He knows the way.

He knows what will happen.

He is all we need.

Let's keep on walking.

It's another Christian life sometimes.

Day after day after day

just plodding

slogging it out

in the paths of faithfulness.

Living by faith

not in today

but living by faith

in what God has said

is true about the future

and the heavenly city

which is ahead of us.

Do we need,

some of us need

some of that today.

Do we need to draw

alongside one another

and do what Barnabas M. Seuer

is doing in Antioch.

Life's tough.

I get it.

I know.

Oh, it's hard

but Jesus

aren't just Barnabas

the kind of guy

who would make

a really good friend.

Imagine that

in Antioch

you're just

people looking at you.

Life is incredibly tough

for them

but somehow

they're just

keeping on going

with Jesus.

It's people

they think

they're heading

somewhere else.

Number three,

these people

they're devoted

to learning

something else.

See Barnabas

verse 25

and again

I love this

in the text

he goes to Tarsus.

See,

remember our map

it was just

around the corner

he goes to Tarsus

because he knows

that that's where

Paul is.

Now Paul's there

because the disciples

had smuggled him

out of Jerusalem

and sent him

to Tarsus

on a boat

when the Jews

made an attempt

of his life

that's back

in chapter 9

and Barnabas

gets there

and thinks

no, no

I'm not the guy

for this job

I need Paul

and I love

the humility

that Barnabas

shows here

because this is

a chance

for Barnabas

to put his name

on the map.

Right,

who wouldn't

want to be part

of the first

Gentile church

to be the guy

that God used

to go and say

hey,

I played a part

in this,

right,

established Barnabas

International Ministries

you know,

could get all this

kind of stuff out

but Barnabas

knows the guy

who Jesus said

was going to be

the minister of his

to the Gentiles

was Paul

and Barnabas

says,

you know what,

no,

Jesus said it was him

and he goes to get him

and he brings him back

and the two of them

do it together

and the two of them

get involved

in the lives

of the people

in Antioch

get involved

in what's going on

and they teach

so what they do

is the word in the text

that Luke tells us

they teach

they teach

these young believers

they get them

in their Bibles

to see

who Jesus is

come and see

come and learn

what he's done

why it matters

what it is

to be a child of God

what it means

to live the Christian life

what happens

after death

the whole shebang

what Paul would call

later

the whole

council of God

and you see

how they do it

not just for a one-off course

they do it

verse 26

for a whole

year

just nurturing

these

young believers

in the ways

of the Christian faith

it's why

in our meetings

that the Bible

is central

it's why

we do Bible studies

during the week

in our small groups

it's why we do

one-to-ones

reading the Bible

together

because this is

what we need

the gospel

to quote Tim Keller

it's not the ABC

of the Christian life

it's the A to Z

of the Christian life

we never graduate

from this

these guys

have a heart

for nurturing

the young believers

and the fundamentals

of the faith

you know

my dad sent me

a picture on

family whatsapp group

sure you've got them

he did it

I think it was November

I get so confused

about what storm

was what

he just sent me

a picture

and I'm pretty sure

it was storm

Arwen

is that the one

storm Arwen

he sends me

a picture

of a huge tree

in the garden

that's come down

and what's happened

it's come down

but all you see

is just roots

in the picture

just roots

these roots

that have just

been nourishing

this tree

for years

and years

and years

these roots

there seems to be

hundreds of them

these roots

there's not just

tons of them

there's metres

and metres

of these roots

and what's happened

is he's been brave

he's gone online

he's bought a chainsaw

to try and free the tree

and he's cut a few things off

to loosen it

and all of a sudden

bam

the tree's gone back

the roots have brought it back

and he flings the chainsaw

and he jumps out

over the other side

the roots were so down in it

it's true isn't it

what we want for our lives

the roots of our lives

to be deep in the word

to be deep in the word

and is it not true

that storms reveal

in our lives

storms reveal

where our roots

really are

alright

I remember one of the first

hospital visits

ever did in this church

was to go and see

a lady called Ruby

Ruby was

she was dying of cancer

down at the western

some of you will know her

remember her

some of you won't

but just what a wonderful

godly lady

remember going to see her

she's sitting there

she is a shadow

of her former self

as she just said

I'm scared

and I loved her honesty

she said I'm scared

I'm scared

refreshing

about how she was feeling

but she said something else

she just said

but I know

Christ

has me

and that's roots

they taught them

for a year

these guys

they're learning

something else

it comes out

in the storms

of their life

people in Antioch

looking and saying

they're learning

something else

something else

is making them tick

roots down in the words

and fourthly

these people

they're up for helping

someone else

and I love this

verse 27

this man

this prophet

called Agabus

and remember

I think we're to understand

that these are unique

things that happened

in this time

God tells them

about a severe famine

that's going to hit

the Roman world

and historians back up

the authenticity

of this

and the response

of the believers

is they hear

they see what it is

right

we hear of a recession

we hear

of financial troubles

that might be coming

what's our first thought

as a culture

it's make sure

that we've got enough

make sure that you have

enough in the pension pot

make sure that you have

enough in your savings account

make sure that you've got

the toilet roll

when it's about to go

make sure you've got the milk

before everyone else buys it

that's not these guys

first reaction

it's not to look after

number one

they think

of their poorer

brothers and sisters

who are back in Jerusalem

for whom this is going to

hit them really

really hard

that's their first thought

we see on a personal level

we can work that out

is there someone

in our church family

here

who's going through

a hard time

maybe financially

maybe we've got a duty

to help

it's a church family

we want to be the kind

of church family

who's looking out

for one another

and wider as well

I've been added

to a whatsapp group

that's been set up

by a ton of churches

down south

and up here as well

just thinking about

how we can support

our brothers and sisters

in Ukraine

prayer updates

coming in

different pictures

being sent

how can we support

our brothers and sisters

over there

not just in Ukraine

but the surrounding

countries as well

who are taking refugees

and I take it

that should be our heart

to want to help

our brothers and sisters

we'll think about ways

potentially that we could

do that

I'm sure

but there's something

bigger going on

I think we need to see here

and this is

this is where we need to see

this is more than just

an office whip round

for a good cause

this is Gentiles

wanting to care

for their Jewish

brothers and sisters

because

their common faith

in Jesus

has connected them

and they've decided

to do this

notice that word

in the text

that it's not just

something they feel

obliged to do

they want to do this

it's a choice

it's a gut conviction

because they realise

that they have got

a Christ shaped duty

to look after

their fellow brothers

and sisters

and again

do you see

how the gospel

Luke is showing us

is smashing down

worldly barriers

you guys

are just little

Jesuses

you're little

Jesuses

and so here's

the question then

would our

community

call us

Christians

by that definition

let me flip it around

are we giving

our community

and you can

broaden that out

our neighbours

our work colleagues

whatever it is

you want

are we giving

our community

cause

to call us

Christians

and here's

where I'm reminded

just as we close

of my friend

Thomas

right

Thomas was one of

my best friends

growing up

and we were

kind of students

at roughly the same

time

I was up in

Aberdeen

he was down

in Edinburgh

and what we used

to do

like most students

do

is during the

summer in particular

get work

so I used

to work

at banks

Thomas used

to work

at bars

one of the

bars he used

to work

at in the

summer

was Edinburgh

University

TV at

bar

that's where

he used

to work

and he used

to work

there during

August

during the

Edinburgh

festival

now that is

a tough

environment

to be a

Christian in

with every

angle you

look at that

from

long hours

that kind

of work

temptation

everywhere

but the

people in

his team

watched Thomas

and they

watched what

he didn't

do

how he

didn't

join in

going big

on the

booze

he didn't

join in

the crude

chat

and they

watched

what he

did

do

how he

spoke

about

Jesus

he was

just a

good guy

to work

with

and the

end of the

whole summer

of working

together

his non-Christian

supervisor

who I found out

this week

from him

was called

Lucy

posted a picture

on Facebook

and I spent

hours trying to

find it this

week and I

couldn't

picture on

Facebook

best Christian

I've ever

met

now that's

a Google

review worth

having isn't

it

what I loved

about the

story I

texted Thomas

this week

said do you

remember that

photo he

said I

remember that

photo it was

back in 2009

and he said I

remember it

because Lucy

she lives in a

totally different

part of the

world now she's

doing something

completely different

but every now

and then I

hear from her

life's going

really hard

Thomas would you

pray for me

I just need

someone to

chat to

Thomas if

you get 10

minutes to

speak on the

phone would

you like to

FaceTime or

Zoom

Christian

let's just

never underestimate

the power of

just a simple

witness to the

grace of Jesus

and let that

encourage you this

morning if you're

in a place and

you're just finding

it hard to

witness for him

to just keep on

going never

underestimate what

God can do

through the

simple witness

of a Christian

would the people

in our community

call us

Christians

because the

disciples were

first called

Christians

here at

Antioch

let's pray

shall we

and so

heavenly father

we just thank

you for this

morning and

thank you for

the challenge

that this has

brought us

the challenge

to be

witnesses for

you in our

community

father thank you

for the comfort

that these

verses have

brought today

that if our

faith is in

you

if we believe

in the Lord

Jesus that is

not because

we've decided

to make a

decision that

is because first

and foremost you

are a God who

is gracious and

good and the

grace of God

has been at

work in our

lives and we

thank you for

the new life

that is found

in Jesus

and so father

I pray for

us today

particularly as

we come now

to remember

your son Jesus

and what he's

done for us on

the cross

as we take the

bread and the

wine together

father would you

be moving in

our midst

bringing that

sense of

knowledge of

who he is

and so father

I pray that you

would just be

with us as we

do that now

in Jesus

precious name

amen